Deep cuts proposed for TEXAS Grants

AUSTIN — Future Texas college students who receive grants under the largest of the state's financial aid programs would see those awards cut nearly in half so more students can receive them, the state agency overseeing higher education recommended Monday.

Reducing individual TEXAS Grant award amounts and tightening eligibility requirements are on the legislative wish list of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, along with charging higher tuition for unnecessary credit hours to reduce the amount of time students spend getting a degree.

It also recommended basing 10 percent of state funding to colleges and universities on student success rates.

On Monday, the first day to pre-file bills for the legislative session that begins in January, Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, submitted HB 25, which calls for up to 25 percent of state funding for higher education institutions to be based on “student success measures,” including number of degrees awarded.

The outcomes-based funding model has been proposed in the past two sessions but has failed both times.

Board spokesman Dominic Chavez said offering smaller TEXAS Grant awards to students is “not ideal” but is the best response to the financial pressures facing the state. The Legislature cut $62 million from the program last year but the pool of students needing financial help increased by 88 percent in the past five years, he said.

Under the proposal, community college students no longer would be eligible for TEXAS Grants, which would transfer $36 million from the program to the Texas Educational Opportunity Grant, also a needs-based grant, which community college students still could tap.

In 2011, the TEXAS Grant program served 37,120 students, about 64 percent of those eligible. Without any changes, Chavez said, only 18 percent of newly eligible students would receive aid at current funding levels. Under the proposal,about 95 percent of newly eligible students would get something, he said.

“We have to find a new way to stretch these dollars as far as we can to get as many new students into the pipeline as possible,” Chavez said.

Raymund Paredes, the state's commissioner of higher education, told lawmakers in October that the average award amount would fall from the current level of $5,000 to about $3,000. Chavez stressed that final award amounts are up to individual institutions.

The board proposes that TEXAS Grants be used only for academic costs, such as tuition, fees and course materials, rather than total costs that include transportation and housing, and for students to seek out federal funding and scholarships to bridge the gap.

“If we make any changes, we have to ensure that students have enough state and federal aid to keep a college education within reach,” responded state Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio. The proposal to tighten eligibility would require students to be enrolled full-time, taking at least 12 credit hours, up from the current nine, and change the lifespan of the award to eight semesters instead of the current 150 semester credit hours.

The board suggested lawmakers place a 60-hour cap on associate's degrees and, in an effort to graduate students quicker, charge out-of-state tuition rates to students who take more than 15 hours above what their degree requires. Current law sets the threshold at 30 hours, Chavez said. He said this would only affect new college students.